Mass Effect: Reclamation
by Orieon
Summary: A colony attacked. A Spectre dead. A failed mission on Eden Prime has Jonathan Shepard on the tail of a Council Spectre gone rogue. However, as events begin to unfold, the Commander realizes that the stakes might be higher than he ever imagined. A retelling of the Mass Effect series.
1. Prologue

A/N: Mass Effect belongs to BioWare and not me. Who knew?

* * *

A dull beeping sound issued from the terminal informing Anderson that he had established a secure connection to the Citadel. A quick glace at the screen confirmed that Hackett and Udina were already waiting in the the call. The Ambassador didn't miss the chance to comment, "Anderson. Glad to see you could make it to our meeting, given that you were the one who organized it."

The low position of the camera capturing the Ambassador's face allowed him to easily give the impression of looking down at whoever he was communicating to. It was a calculated position designed to make the person on the other end feel as inconsequential as possible. However, it had little effect of the Captain other than giving him the brief thought that he would love to punch the annoying man in his overly large nose. Anderson was sure that the look on his face would have silenced anyone under his command, but Udina choose to ignore it as he prattled on about the importance of his time and position.

Hackett had little more patience for the man than the Captain did. "Well Udina, the quicker you let us get back to the matter at hand; the quicker you can get back to matters of **greater** importance."

Though his tone had remained light, the look on the Admiral's face had sent a clear warning. Anderson was sure that if the three man had been occupying the same room, the temperature would have just dropped several degrees. He had to make an effort at keeping the smirk off his face as he began. "My apologies. I was delayed because the Alliance Personnel database crashed on me when I tried to retrieve the information from it today."

"Military efficiency at its finest," Hackett acknowledged with a hum of agreement. "They told me they would have that issue fixed in a week over six months ago. Continue Captain."

"This meeting concerns our potential initiate for the Spectre program. For the last month, I have been sifting through Alliance Personnel records for three potential candidates. I believe that I have found the person we're looking for." Bringing his omni-tool closer to the terminal, Anderson uploaded a file into the system before sending if off to the other two men. "Now if you will open the file I just sent you, you will-"

Once again, Udina took over the conversation, "Well there only seems to be one personnel file in this packet. Unless there has been another **malfunction**, it would seem that you are only a third done with your search Anderson."

For once, Anderson was all too happy to respond to Udina's verbal jab. "I do have two other files with me. But to be perfectly honest, they are really only here as a formality at this point. This man is the one we're looking for."

"John Shepard?"

"Correct Admiral. Jonathan Andrew Shepard: born in 2154 on Mindoir. His parents were part of the first generation of colonists to establish the colony of Mindoir. Childhood was normal enough till 2170 when Batarian slavers hit the colony. He was one of only a few survivors our teams were able to pull out after the attack. His parents and friends are all believed to have been killed or captured. With no other living relatives, he became a ward of the Alliance and disappears off radar till 2173 when he joins the Alliance Military. Now switch over to his medical records because this is where things start getting interesting."

At this point Anderson took a moment's pause to collect himself. "Okay, the first thing you'll probably note is the biotic flag listed in his profile. During the recruitment process a routine physical examination turned up evidence of Element Zero nodes in Shepard's body. This was quite an anomaly, given that it didn't turn up anywhere in his medical history. The examiner was understandably curious that neither Shepard, nor his medical history, had listed them anywhere. When questioned over it he acknowledged that he knew about his biotic's."

"So you're saying that Shepard knew that he had biotic potential and choose to keep it a secret," Hackett interjected. "How does something like that slip by our record keeping. First generation colonies keep meticulous medical records to check for any adverse reactions to the planetary conditions. If there's nothing on file, then the colony's doctor, not to mention his parents, would have to have been keeping it a secret."

Anderson visibly shrugged, "It's the most likely scenario, Admiral. It would hardly be the first case where this has occurred. BAaT didn't exactly have a good reputation even during its heyday, so it's hardly a stretch to believe that his parents simply didn't want him there. If you look at his background files you can see that his mother was listed as one of the colony doctors. It does put her in the perfect position to hide something. Assuming she could get the other medical workers to go along with it, there is no reason think otherwise."

Hackett's hand came up to trace the scar that lined the said of his face as he thought. "But Shepard had to have known that we would find out when he enlisted. Medical examinations are a prerequisite."

Anderson acknowledged the Admiral's point with a nod, "Maybe he just didn't care to keep the secret anymore. Or perhaps he was unable to. He did enlist as soon as he came of age. As you said, any routine medical evaluation would have turned up something. Regardless, after he was questioned during the enlistment process, he willingly submitted to the procedure to have the L3 implants installed. However, his training at the time left something to be desired. You were probably more familiar with it than I am Admiral."

Hackett gave a slight grimace, "It was somewhat of an awkward transition phase for our biotics program at the time. BAaT had already been closed and the Ascension Program was still a few years off. Of course BAaT was a black eye that we're still trying to recover from."

Udina gave a snort, "A black eye would be putting it **very** mildly Admiral. That mess was a political shit-storm that I'm still cleaning up to this day. We're lucky that the Council doesn't particularly care for humanities internal squabbles. If they had gotten involved..."

"I'm well aware of the Council's power Udina," Hackett replied. "Now if we can move on." The Admiral gestured for Anderson to continue.

Anderson switched over to a different page. "Very well, take a look at his service records. Shepard's aptitude scores were quite high for a recruit. Combined with his exceptional scores in both physical testing and marksmanship, the man was the picture of a model Alliance Marine. He went into active service in 2174. He was stationed in one of our colonial response units we have in the Attican Traverse. With all the problems we were having with pirates and the batarians at the time, it wasn't surprising that his detachment saw a fair bit of combat. In less than two years he managed to acquire two different Commendation Medals. That would have been impressive in and of itself, but in 2177 things changed with Akuze."

It was at this moment that Hackett looked up from the data on the terminal screen. "I knew that the name sounded familiar. We are talking about the John Shepard? As in the sole survivor of Akuze?"

Anderson was quick to respond, "The very same Admiral. I'm sure both you and the Ambassador are familiar enough with the event for me to skip over the details." Both men nodded. "Shepard was the only member of the unit we sent planet side to survive the thresher maw attack, and even he didn't make it out unscathed. If you look at the medical report; he sustained injury to his left side from exposure to thresher maw acid. He was placed on medical leave for five months. He underwent two reconstructive surgeries for the muscles in his left side. Though he made a full physical recovery in six weeks, he was off active duty for psychological evaluation."

Hackett didn't beat around the bush, "He saw his whole unit die on Akuze. That kind of thing is bound to leave scars. I'm actually surprised that we even tried to keep him around after an event like that."

"You're not wrong Admiral. Shepard was actually offered a discharge with full honors in light of the circumstances, but he rejected the offer. We ran a full evaluation on him after that. The psychologist did identify a couple of potential issues, but his profile had no factors present that inhibited him from returning to active duty."

"What were the issues the psychologist identified?" questioned Udina. Apparently both men had their misgivings. Still, Anderson was sure that Hackett would come around once the Admiral heard the rest of his information. That left the problem of the Ambassador. The man was anything but stupid, but that didn't make him any less of a nuisance right now. Udina didn't have the experience of the other two men in the call. Not that it really mattered anyways: Anderson knew who he really had to convince. Once Hackett was on board, the plan would go forward. _You don't become an Admiral without knowing how to get what you want._

Anderson's hesitation faded as he began, "Shepard's psychological profile showed indications of being emotionally closed off. In addition to this, the psychologist also noted that Shepard showed certain signs associated with 'moral flexibility' I believe he termed it."

"That sounds like a potentially dangerous combination Captain," Udina deadpanned.

Hackett and Anderson shared a knowing look before Hackett responded, "…or a potentially useful one."

Udina turned a questioning glance on the other two men in the call. "I'm afraid you'll have to enlighten me here because I don't see why we would want those traits in our soldiers."

Anderson shot a questioning glance at Hackett. The Admiral seems to consider something for a moment before he nodded back. _I guess that Udina will need to understand sooner or later anyways. _"In most circumstances you might be right in your assessment Udina, but there are positions where those attributes can prove quite useful." The Ambassador made no attempt to hide the expectant look he gave the call's other two occupants."You'll find similar psychological characteristics in many of the Alliance's Special Forces operators. If you look at Shepard's record, you will find that he was transferred into the Alliances Interplanetary Combatives Training program shortly after his return to active duty."

"The two of you will have to forgive me Captain if I don't know the more technical names of our different branches..."

"The N-program is what I believe it is more commonly known as. I can't divulge too many details to you without the proper clearance Ambassador, but I looked over his results during the program and they were, in a word, exemplary. He met or exceeded the standard in almost every category of training he was given. I took the time to talk with a few of his trainers and they had quite a bit to say to me."

At this point Anderson opened his omni-tool to look at the notes he had transcribed. "The instructors made no secret of the fact that Shepard might very well be the finest operative they ever produced. He still holds more than a few of the performance records at the Villa. I was also informed that he was schools youngest graduate to achieve full N7 status at age twenty-six. One of his former mentors actually described seeing Shepard train as 'seeing a machine at work.'"

Udina openly scoffed at this point, "From what you're saying I'd say that machine is a good descriptor of Shepard. However, machines break **Captain**."

Any retort Anderson was going to make died on his lips at Hackett's frosty reply, "So do people, **Ambassador**."

Despite the multiple light-years separating the two men, the battle hardened stare of the Admiral make short work of the Ambassador. The atmosphere of the call hung in tense silence for a moment as Udina seemed to visibly shrink under the withering glare Hackett directed at him. Though he was sorry to do so, Anderson decided to break up the contest in favor of continuing. "Gentleman, we don't have time for this. Now can we get back to the matter at hand."

The Captain ignored Udina's response in favor of observing Hackett. The man broke off his glare and took a deep breath before responding. "Agreed. Let's finish this up." _And there is my answer. _Anderson had already convinced the Admiral. Anything else was just a waste of time at this point. Udina could object and stall all he wanted now: it wouldn't change the outcome. _Time to wrap this up then._

"After his graduation from the training program, Shepard participated in several operations throughout the Attican Traverse and even all the way into the Terminus Systems. During 2181, he was awarded the rank of Lieutenant Commander, and was a leader of several more operations in both sectors."

"Well I can't seem to find any information on what these operations were, or even if they happened at all," remarked Udina as he scrolled up and down the information on his screen.

Anderson let out a soft chuckle his confusion. "That would be the idea. These Ops were, and remain, classified. I'm also sure that not all of them were strictly keeping to Citadel Conventions. Even **your** clearance only goes so far Ambassador. All you really need to know is that the missions in question had a 100 percent success rate."

Hackett finally broke his silence. "Well, if Commander Shepard can do even half of the things you're saying he can, then I'd say that he looks like exactly the type of man we're looking for. What are your thoughts Udina?"

The ambassador was slow to respond as he considered the information before him. "Well, I certainly have some misgivings about making **this** man our representative of justice in the galaxy. Is this the kind of man we want protecting the galaxy?"

Anderson's response was a simply one, "That's the only type of man who can protect the galaxy."

"Very well then," Udina acknowledged with a soft sigh. "I can see that the two of you have already made up your minds on the matter. Have Admiral Hackett draw up the papers necessary to transfer Shepard under your command. I'll contact the Council."

As the same dull beep signaled the termination of the call, Anderson allowed himself a brief moment's respite. As he settled back into his chair, the Captain cast a last glance over the picture from Shepard's personnel file. The face seemed unremarkable enough, but the stare it carried was almost unnerving. It was the type of stare that told you nothing of the man behind it. A man who would soon be his to evaluate. As he closed the file a different tab popped back up from being minimized earlier. If Anderson looked closely, he could make out the design details for an Alliance vessel. Though the frigate design on the blueprint was strange compared to the others that orbited Arcturus Station, it was a match to the ship undergoing the final phases of construction less than a kilometer away. As he got up to leave the room Anderson switched off the terminal and the blueprints disappeared. Things would be moving soon, and he would need to be prepared when they did. They all would be.

* * *

A/N: Hello readers. What can I really say. I've had the idea of a fanfiction from the Mass Effect series tumbling around in my head for months now, so I finally decided to just start typing and see what happened. This will be a full retelling of the series starting from its beginning all the way through Mass Effect 3. That being said, this isn't going to be a straight novelization of the games. I don't expect my plot will really differ that much from the established one for at least about first game. However, my Mass Effect 2 story is going to diverge sharply from the established one and you can expect my Mass Effect 3 story to have very little in common with the original. I want to keep elements from the original narrative framework of the later stuff, but little of the actual plot details. I'm also probably going to be ignoring most if not all of the expanded universe stuff since it wasn't particularly good and I can't be sure if anyone read it anyways.

The changes you can expect to see from this first story will be mostly centered around the universe and lore itself. One of the things that I enjoyed most about the series was that, in the first game at least, the writers tried quite hard to actually make the mechanics of the universe justifiable. Admittedly, they still had some pretty big discrepancies and problems with their science, but many of these come from trying to justify in game mechanics. Since I am doing a story instead of a game, you can expect me to address many of these ideas and the potential plot holes they were creating. Where retcons between the games occur, I will choose the more appropriate idea and run with it, or create some bastardized child of the two. Any changes I make to the lore or universe will be explained in the author notes as they come up so you know what I'm doing. That being said, I am writing this story for people who have already played the games, so I won't be spending much time to explain things that the games already cover in detail unless I plan on changing something about them. If you find yourself confused about something in the story, I recommend checking the Mass Effect wiki.

On that note, if you have any burning questions related to my story that inhibit your ability to sleep at night, then feel free to send me a message and I will try to get back to you. Feel free to review or message me with any critiques you might have. I enjoy a well thought out analysis of my writing as much as anyone else here.

A final point: I am human like the rest of you and can be expected to make grammatical and spelling mistakes while writing. I do make an effort to edit my work before posting, but some things are bound to make it through. My attitude has always been that a few errors in writing can be excused as long as they don't prove a detriment to the readers comprehension of your work. However, if any of my errors are bad enough that you find yourself studying the sentence like a map compass, I encourage you to send me a message so I that I may correct my most grievous errors.


	2. The Best Laid Plans

A/N: Mass Effect Belongs to BioWare.

* * *

A single spot of light moved against the background canvas of stars. As it pressed closer to the Mass Relay on the outer edges of the Sol System, its image began to coalesce into the form of a Systems Alliance frigate. Similar to the forward momentum that carried the ship through space, forward momentum also carried a particular occupant towards the bow of the ship.

Jonathan Shepard moved quickly towards the Normandy's cockpit. As the second in command of the vessel it wasn't uncommon to find either Captain Anderson or himself on the command deck. However, his presence was hardly necessary for the short relay transit that was about to occur. Still, as the ships pilot counted down the time to relay interface, he knew that wasn't a place he would rather be. The Commander barely had time to note the presence of the heavily armored turian beside him before the cockpit seemed to stretch away into infinity as the power of the mass relay propelled the Normandy across the galaxy. Only moments later, the sudden appearance of another relay marked the end of their rapid transit. A dull rumble could be felt through the ship as the lower thruster pylons moved into place.

"Transit complete. All systems green and ready for orders Commander."

However, it was not the Commander's voice that responded, but that of the turian also occupying the cockpit. "Your captain will be pleased. Put us on a heading towards Eden Prime and contact the Alliance cruiser in orbit to let them know we have arrived." With that, Nihlus moved towards the aft section of the ship.

As soon as he was beyond hearing range, Joker made his opinions on the situation known, "I hate that guy."

The remark met a sarcastic response from the occupant of the chair next to his own, "So a Council Spectre gives you a compliment about your flying and you hate him?"

"No Kaidan. A Council Spectre decides to give me orders, completely disregarding our commanding officer standing right next to him, and thus showing a complete lack of respect for our chain of command. Therefore, I hate him."

Though he was inclined to agree with Joker, Shepard did feel the need to stop the two from arguing. "Actually Joker, as a Spectre, Nihlus technically has greater authority than anyone on this ship."

"Well that just brings up another question doesn't it Commander. What is a Council Spectre doing on our ship anyways?"

This time, Kaidan's response held a lecturing overtone, "Joker, you're being paranoid. The Council helped fund this project. You can be sure that they want to have someone here to see what all that money bought them."

Shepard turned to Kaiden, "The Council has every right to send a representative on this run, ...but you don't send a **Spectre** on a shakedown run."

The ship's communication system suddenly crackled to life as Anderson's voice came through Joker's console, "Joker, status report."

"Ships systems are all green and the stealth system is operating flawlessly Captain."

"I need that connection to the Manila up as soon as possible. I want any status updates on the system they can give me before we reach Eden Prime."

"Consider it done," Joker responded. The Pilot's hands danced over the controls as he tried to establish a connection. After a few seconds he began to frown at the screen."I'm not getting a response to our hail Captain, but they could just be in the planets shadow. I can connect us to a comm buoy if we want to hit the far side, but if we do that the stealth system becomes a moot point."

"Keep us off the grid for now Joker, but find that ship quickly. Tell the Commander to meet me back in the comm room as well."

"Will do Captain. Also, you might want to brace yourself Sir: I think Nihlus is headed your way."

The annoyance in the Captain's voice was palpable in his response, "He is already **here **Lieutenant."

The cut-off of the comm was met with a dull slapping sound as Joker's hands left the control yokes to slap against his face. "How. How. HOW. How do I always manage to do this? God, it's a good thing he can't put me on general detail work. Anyhow, you hear that Commander? ...Shepard?" Joker managed to awkwardly maneuver himself around in his chair until he could peek back behind it. When he failed to find the Commander, he swept his eyes down the command deck only to see the man in question already halfway to the elevator. "Man, that guy is so quiet it's creepy sometimes. You know what I mean Kaidan?"

The remark only succeeded in getting an open laugh out of his co-pilot, "Everyone is quiet compared to you Joker."

* * *

Shepard moved quickly toward the Communications Room at the aft end of the Command Deck. His purposeful stride had most of the personnel on the deck moving quickly out of his path. With an internal sigh, he noted that this, apparently, worked on everyone except for the ships resident Navigator.

"Commander, ship systems are green across the board. It looks like our first relay jump was a smooth one."

The Commander was just starting to wonder why Pressly was holding him up when his next question caught him off-guard.

"Are you going to see the Captain?"

The slight hesitance in the Navigator's voice was the only thing that kept Shepard's feet planted. "I'm on my back to meet with him right now."

And just like that, the hesitancy was gone, "Well then, would you mind asking him what the hell it is we're really doing out here when you do?"

"You think that the Alliance Brass is holding out on us," Shepard stated. _May as well get to the point._ The Commander reasoned that if even Joker picked up on something, then of course other people were going to be suspicious.

"Commander, this trip was to be a simple test of the Normandy's stealth systems. There was no need to jump all the way to Eden Prime to do that. Then there's Nihlus. You don't send a Spectre on a shakedown run. And, judging from the combat load out he was just marching around in, I think Nihlus is expecting some heavy action wherever we're going."

Shepard was impressed by Pressly's observational skills. Though he had noted the same thing when he saw the turian, the navigator was smart to pick up on the thing that both Joker and Kaidan had missed. _You don't carry a small arsenal with you if you're not planning to use it._ The Commander spared a remark for the Navigator as he continued his trip toward the elevator. "I'll give you some answers when I get them."

As Shepard moved past the CIC, he was met with an enthusiastic salute from Corporal Jenkins. He barely had time to give him a nod of acknowledgement before he passed through the door and into the Communications Room. However, inside the room was not the pair he had expected to find, but just Nihlus waiting alone. Shepard was somewhat perplexed by the Captains absence, as well as the fact that Nihlus appeared to be engrossed by a simple projection of Eden Prime's agri-farms. He also noted that the Spectre didn't acknowledge at his presence till he was almost behind him. _He is either very confident in his skills, or he feels comfortable enough to have his back to me. He really shouldn't. _The Commander may have only been in his casual uniform at the moment, but he was more than capable to taking down an opponent with his back turned to him. His musings were brought to a halt as the rooms only other occupant finally turned to towards him.

"Commander Shepard, I was hoping to have a change to speak with you before the Captain arrived."

"And where is he?"

"He's on his way." With that, Nihlus returned to his consideration of the monitor. Shepard was begging to wonder if his silence would persist until Anderson arrived when Nihlus beckoned him forward to stand beside him. "I am curious about this world of yours: Eden Prime. I have heard that it's quite beautiful."

_Are we speaking in rhetorical questions now?_ If this was some kind of mission, then Nihlus would have read enough reports on the planet to know it better than he probably did. He decided to deadpan with the Spectre and gauge his reaction. "I wouldn't know. I've never been to Eden Prime… and I'm guessing you know that."

This was apparently quite amusing to the Turian as he gave a small chuckle before he responded, "With intelligence profiles these days: wonder why we even bother with introductions. Am I right Commander?" Nihlus paused a moment to consider the screen before continuing, "They call it a paradise: serene, tranquil, safe. Eden Prime has become something of a symbol to your people. Living proof that humanity can establish working colonies in the stars. And, of course, that it can also protect them. But paradise is easily lost Commander. How safe is this colony, really?"

_From rhetorical questions to rhetorical threats._ This was definitely not the conversation that Shepard had expected. What kind of angle was he playing with this? Once again The Commander decided that the direct approach would be the best one. "Is that supposed to be a warning, or a threat? After the Skyllian Blitz, the Alliance made it standard operating procedure to have at least one Alliance ship on station around all of our major colonies."

Nihlus finally turned away from the monitor to deliver his next statement. "Your people are still newcomers in this galaxy Commander. You will find the galaxy can be a very dangerous and unforgiving place."

Any retort Shepard might have made was cut short by the arrival of Captain Anderson. He didn't waste time on greetings, choosing instead to skip to the matter at hand. "I think it's time to tell the Commander what is really going on."

Nihlus took this as a sign to continue, "This mission is far more than a simple shakedown run."

For his part, Shepard felt the need to point out the obvious. "I already figured out that much. A Council Spectre on board a stealth ship and an unplanned stop that's pretty far off the flight plan. It's not too hard to put together. Even the crew has been getting suspicious Captain."

"As long as suspicion is all they have. We needed absolute secrecy for this mission. We're making a covert pickup on Eden Prime."

Now the Commander's interest had been piqued. What could be important enough on Eden Prime that the Alliance would want to have it secretly moved off world, but that they would be okay with the Council knowing about? Well, the direct approach had worked so far. "What's the payload?"

"Less than a week ago, an Alliance research team was working on an excavation when they uncovered a Prothean Beacon. This is big Shepard. The last time humanity recovered a Prothean Beacon was at the Mars Archives. That Beacon jumped our technology forward over 200 years. The problem is that Eden Prime doesn't have the facilities to handle something like this. That's why we are moving the beacon to the Citadel."

"So why the need for so much secrecy?"

This time is was Nihlus who responded to Shepard's question, "This goes beyond mere human interests. The information on that Beacon has the potential to affect every species in the galaxy. We have no idea what kind of information might be contained within that beacon. There are many out there who would kill to have whatever information might be on it. For that reason: secrecy is of the utmost importance until we can get that beacon to the Citadel."

"Are we expecting trouble?"

"I'm always expecting trouble." The Spectre's response was certainly one that Shepard could agree with.

Sensing that he wasn't going to get anymore from the Spectre, the Commander waited to be dismissed so he could go down to the armory and change into his gear.

"Will that be all Sir?"

"There is one more thing Shepard." Apparently, Anderson wasn't quite though with him yet.

_There's always one more thing._ "What is it?"

"Nihlus isn't just here because of the beacon. He's also here to evaluate you."

_Evaluate me?_ Suddenly the conversation he had with the Spectre before the Captain arrived took on a somewhat different meaning. The question was: what were they evaluation him for? "I'm afraid I don't follow Captain."

"The Alliance has been pushing for a larger role in shaping interstellar policy for a while now. The Spectres are the living representations of the Council's power and authority. If they accept a human into their ranks, then it will show just how far humanity has come."

_It's always backroom politics._ The Commander had little patience for games of politics, and even less for the people that played them. However, he was pretty sure that Anderson felt the same way. _So why is the Captain pushing this agenda?_ This seemed like an awful lot of work for something that would have little more than a symbolic impact. Still, as Shepard cast a glance over at Nihlus, he had to remind himself that symbolism certainly had its place. "OK then, what do you want me to do?"

This time is was Nihlus that responded to his question, "Not many could have survived what you went through on Akuze Commander. You showed a remarkable will to live: a particularly useful talent. However, I'm going to need to evaluate your skills for myself. Eden Prime is to be the first of several missions we'll be undertaking together."

Anderson picked up where Nihlus left off. "You'll be in charge of the ground team for this mission. Locate the beacon and secure it for transport ASAP. Nihlus will accompany you to observe the-"

"Captain!" The sudden sound of Joker's voice over the comm system caught everyone by surprise.

Something in the tone of his voice told Shepard that this wasn't merely a courtesy call. Apparently, Anderson noticed it too because he was quick to respond to the normally snarky pilot. "What is it Joker?"

"We found the Manila Captain."

"Is there something wrong with her?"

"You need to see for yourself."

The picturesque landscape of Eden Prime was immediately replaced by a much more sinister scene. It took Shepard a moment to even recognize the cloud of debris as the remains of the Alliance Cruiser. It looked like something has shredded the outer layer of ablative armor before tearing straight through the ship's midsection. The vessel had been almost completely bisected near the engineering section. A good chunk of the port side thruster had been completely torn off, and he could see small geysers of flame shooting out into space from sections that still had hull pressure. At this point he had to write off any of the crews chances of survival. Anderson was the first one to break the silence of the room.

"What the hell could do that to an Alliance Cruiser?"

Joker quickly broke the speculation of the room's occupants, "What are your orders, Captain?"

"First, get us connected to a Comm Buoy and send a distress signal to Alliance Command. Then, I want you to move us in closer. We will need to prep a team to check for survivors."

Shepard wasn't usually one to second guess Anderson, but in this case, there were other things at stake. "I think that would be a moot point Sir."

"Commander?"

"Those geysers of flame you see coming out of the hull mean that the ship probably has several internal fires burning. If the ship had power, then the pressure doors would have closed to those areas and they would have been vented to put out the fires. The fact that they haven't means that the ship doesn't have power. No power means no life support. Without life support, the fires have probably already exhausted most of the usable atmosphere still left on board. That ship is a tomb Sir."

Nihlus seemed to agree, "He's right Captain. We can't do anything more for them right now. We need to-"

Once again, Jokers voice broke the tense atmosphere of the room. "Captain, We're receiving a distress transmission directly from the planet's surface."

"Onscreen."

The rooms monitor changed once again from the ruined hulk of the Alliance cruiser to what appeared to be a suit recording from the planet's surface. Sounds of gunfire immediately began to pour through the speakers as the recorder's owner and the marines around him turned to fire on a target off-screen. A new sound filled the room as whatever they were targeting returned fire. Suddenly, the Camera-man found himself unceremoniously shoved to the ground by another marine as a burst of fire went directly through the space that he had just occupied. His Commander seemed to remember the transmission as he leaned over the now prone soldier to deliver his distress call. It was hard to make out anything he was saying, but Shepard was sure he heard the words 'ambush' and 'heavy casualties' spoken by the man before he was suddenly cut down. His body fell onto the Camera-man as splatters of blood flecked the helm mounted recorder. The Marine rolled the dead man off of him and regained his feet as the camera caught the stunned looks of his comrades. A dull rumbling began to overpower the rest of the noises from the battlefield. The Marine turned to look at the noise's source only to see a massive claw-like ship descending from the clouds. The massive structure dominated the screen for moment only to be cut off as the transmission turned to static.

A cold stillness held the room as its occupants tried to make sense of what they had just witnessed. The silence was broken a moment later by Joker's voice on the comm, "The transmission cuts out after that. Actually, all comm traffic from the surface has stopped."

"Joker, reverse the transmission and hold just before the end."

Once again the image of the giant claw-like ship dominated the screen in front of them. Anderson was the first to speak, "I'm guessing that thing is probably responsible for the Manila's destruction. We need to assume that someone is here to try and steal the beacon. We need to get to the surface and secure that beacon before the enemy force can reach it."

Nihlus finally decided to speak up after his protracted silence, "A small strike team can move quickly to secure the beacon without drawing attention."

Anderson turned to regard Shepard, "You, Lieutenant Alenko, and Corporal Jenkins will work with Nihlus to secure the beacon and arrange a pickup. Head down to the armory and get your gear sorted." The Commander wasted no time as he practically sprinted towards the room's exit. As the door closed behind him Anderson turned back to the view screen in front of him. "Joker, get us planet-side."

"Aye Aye Captain," the Normandy's Pilot acknowledged.

The dull hum of the ship's vibrations beneath Anderson's feet increased with the added power her pilot was giving her. As he felt the pull of acceleration on his body, the Captain turned towards the Spectre that occupied the space next to him. "This just got a lot more complicated."

For his part, Nihlus only nodded.

* * *

A/N: Only a couple of changes to note for this chapter. The first one is in regards to Joker's little spiel at the beginning of the chapter. In the game, Nihlus complements him for how small the Normandy's drift is after exiting the relay. However, I have decided to remove the concept of drift from this version of the Mass Effect universe. Actually, I'm not even really removing it because it never really existed. Despite being one of the very first pieces of information on the ME universe we are exposed to, there is not a single incidence of drift in the entire series. In fact, this idea is subverted almost constantly as the plot demands. Entire armadas of ships jump in perfect formation from relay to relay. Every. Single. Time. Hell, the Conduit itself relies on the fact that drift never occurs. So I figure: why bother having an idea that the series itself couldn't even be bothered to use.

Second, you will have probably have noticed that I added an Alliance cruiser that was in orbit above Eden Prime. This is here to correct one of a more annoying aspects of the Alliance in the ME universe. In cannon, the Alliance keeps all of its ships stationed at major relay points for fast response to any situation that might occur. While not a terrible idea in and of itself, the fact that they fail to leave even the smallest token planetary defense at some of their major strategic holdings is just asinine. This means that any idiot could potentially attack any Alliance colony for minutes, if not hours, before the Alliance would be able to scramble a response. In fact, this is the **exact** reason that the Skyllian Blitz was able to occur. I simply have the Alliance learn from that monumental failure instead of continuing to be stupid. This doesn't mean every Alliance settlement will have a ship stationed over it, but at least their major holdings will have some measure of protection.

Oh, one more thing. I probably don't have to mention this to you guys, but **bold** text is used when the person is emphasizing the word in question while _italics _will be used for any direct thoughts occurring within a characters head. Those thoughts might also include either flashbacks or any dream sequences that come up.


	3. Reactionary Tactics

A/N: I don't own Mass Effect. BioWare does.

* * *

Shepard sat hunched over on a box in the armory section of the Normandy's hanger bay as he worked the last few pieces of his armor into place. Methodically checking the straps and seals of his suit one more time, he turned his attention to the two men doing to same only a few meters away. Kaidan seemed to have matters well in hand as he synched up his omni-tool with his hard-suit's interface. Jenkins, on the other hand, seemed to be having some trouble with the clasps of his combat boots.

"Corporal."

"Commander?"

"Have a seat on one of the crates, then fasten the clasps. They're just going to give you trouble standing up." Jenkins looked abashed that he had been caught in his struggle. Moving to a nearby crate he sat down to have another go at the clasps.

Nerves. That's all it was really. Jenkins knew how to put on his combat gear. He certainly wouldn't be here if he didn't. It was just the anxiety that came before a mission. Everyone felt it, and everyone dealt with it differently. As Shepard lounged back against the bulkhead, he allowed himself a small smirk at the Corporal's actions. It had been years since he had felt that kind of anxiety before a mission. Enough experience could harden anyone. Still, with what he had just seen 10 minutes ago in the Comm Room, Shepard couldn't deny the slight feeling of nervousness that pooled low in his gut. The footage they had seen made the surface look like a warzone, and they would be going straight into it. You would have to be stupid to not be nervous about that.

Shepard felt the ships angle of decent finally level off as they cleared Eden Prime's upper atmosphere. Right on cue, Anderson and Nihlus made their entrance to the hanger bay. The two of them made a beeline towards Shepard's squad in the corner before the Captain began speaking.

"Shepard, your team will be handling the beacon's extraction. Do whatever you need to reach that site as quickly as possible, but try to be quiet doing it. We are still getting scattered comm chatter in the area, so there are definitely still people fighting down there."

With a better idea of the mission parameters, Shepard moved over to the armory table where several weapons were laying. Looking over the assortment of weapons he considered the possibilities: unknown hostiles, the need for rapid displacement, probably short to midrange targets with the potential for a full on firefight. He selected a Vindicator assault rifle, as well as a Katana shotgun and a Predator pistol. The first two weapons were attached to the mag strips on his back while the pistol went onto the smaller one on his leg. Moving back to the assembled group he arrived just in time to hear Kaidan speak up.

"What about survivors Captain?" _It looks like Kaidan gets to address the elephant in the room._ Even as he finished though, Shepard had a pretty good idea what the answer would be already.

"Any military personnel you encounter might prove useful to your mission. Other than that, helping any survivors is a secondary priority." The Captain's answer was about what Shepard had been expecting. Kaidan looked like he wanted to say something, but instead choose to remain silent.

The ship began to rapidly decelerate as Joker's voice broke over the comm, "Captain, we are approaching the first drop zone." The ramp behind them partially lowered as Nihlus moved towards the edge. This time it was Jenkins that had a question to ask.

"Nihlus, you aren't coming with us?"

The Spectre only fingered the release for the shotgun in his hands as he moved towards the edge. "I move faster on my own."

Anderson must have noticed Shepard's questioning look because he decided to answer the Commander's question before it was even asked. "Nihlus will be scouting ahead for your team. We can't risk keeping the Normandy on overwatch with the ship that destroyed the Manila so close by. Our stealth system may as well be nonexistent in the atmosphere for all the good it does. Nihlus will be feeding you status reports throughout the mission. Other than that, I want complete radio silence unless the shit hits the fan. Understood Commander?"

Shepard was slightly surprised by this turn of events. _So the Nihlus will be the one scouting. With a shotgun… right_. Then again, Nihlus was a Spectre so Shepard would have to give him the benefit of a doubt. It would also mean that he could get reliable intel since using the Normandy was out of the question. He'd certainly had worse setups for a mission.

"Understood Captain."

As the ship's ramp began to lower again to allow his team to exit Shepard noticed that they were holding a position only about 3 meters above the ground. _Apparently, Joker is good for more than just smart-ass remarks._ Shepard turned to look at Anderson as he gave the commander a final sendoff.

"The mission is yours Shepard. Good luck."

With a final nod of acknowledgement, Shepard jumped off the ship. About halfway to the ground, he used biotics to slow his decent. His feet barely made a sound as the rubber soles sank into the grass underneath. Looking over, Shepard realized the Kaidan must have done something similar since he was already looking around while Jenkins pushed himself off of the ground. Coming to his feet again, Jenkins colorful commentary was silenced by the Commander, "Quiet, Jenkins."

The mission was on now and Shepard allowed his perspective to shift. There would be time for distractions later. A deep breath passed his lips as his eyes slipped momentarily closed. His centered his thoughts as he allowed his consciousness to crawl back in on itself. His senses shifted outward as he returned his focus to the world around him. The commander that opened his eyes moments later was every bit the N7 operative he had been trained to be.

"I'll take point. Kaidan, you follow me and Jenkins can bring up the rear. Stay low and keep a sharp eye."

Shepard began to lead his squad towards the area that had been marked on his HUD as the last known location of the beacon. Looking at the topographical mapof the area, it looked like the location they had been dropped off at was along one of the outer edges of the valley. As they followed a ravine downward Shepard caught movement at the corner of his vision. Signaling his squad to a stop, he motioned them to follow slowly as he crouched into the underbrush to hide his movement. As they got closer, he finally got a look at the object from before. Some kind of bulging balloon-like creature was floating over a pool of water. It didn't look threatening, but Shepard wasn't taking chances. He turned to the colony's former resident to ask.

"Jenkins, what is that thing?"

For his part, Jenkins seemed to find some humor in the situation, "It's a Gasbag Sir. It's pretty harmless."

Shepard straightened up and continued on a little quicker than before. That distraction had cost them time. His first message from Nihlus came in as he moved.

"I found an outpost Commander. It looks like this place got hit hard: lots of corpses, no survivors on site. I can see a lot of hostiles moving down in the valley. Not sure about what they are though. Keep your guard up."

They came across their first bodies a minute later at the top of a depression. They were lying in a rough circle near a pair of boulders. As Shepard flipped over one of the corpses to get a look at the wounds Kaidan walked over to him.

"Looks like a patrol got ambushed."

Shepard took a look at the marks left in the corpse before responding. "Yeah. See how they are arranged in a circle. Probably got surrounded by something and tried to make it to those rocks for cover." He leaned over to get a closer look at the marks left in the corpse's combat suit. "Look at the wounds here. Doesn't look like it was made by a mass accelerator round." Shepard took his finger and poked it into one of the holes left in the armor. "The ceramic is pockmarked." Shepard stuck his finger in a little further to get a better look. Jenkins turned away from the scene. "Looks like it had some trouble with the gel layer though." Pulling his finger out of the hole, the Commander noticed tiny bits of metal in the congealed blood-gel mixture. S_ome kind of fragmentation round? _Wiping the residue from his finger, Shepard straightened and moved over to where Kaidan had joined Jenkins. "We know there was an ambush here recently so we need to play it cautiously through this low area. We'll leapfrog between cover positions."

Taking point again, Shepard led his squad down into the rocky depression. The three of them spread out among the rocks as first one, then another would move forward into a new cover position. Coming to the rise on the far side, the Commander was starting to wonder if their enemies had moved on when they suddenly made their presence known.

Jenkins was just starting to displace to a new cover position when a humming sound brought him up short. Sweeping his rifle over the area in front of him he couldn't seem to pinpoint the sound's source until it was too late. A trio of flying drones moved out from behind a rocky precipice almost ten meters higher than he was looking and unleashed a barrage of fire directly at the vulnerable target.

Shepard had a clear view from his position. As the Jenkins was stopped short by the sound Shepard was already moving his rifle into a firing position. He tried to yell at the Corporal to take cover, but his cry was cut short by the high pitched whine of the drone's weapons. He wasted no time. Even as the Corporal's body collapsed to the ground, the Commander's first shots found one of the attackers. A blue flash signaled the presence of a kinetic barrier before the barrage of rounds tore through the barrier and into the drone's body. As the first one fell, three more drones joined the remaining two. Their formation spread out as they advanced on the remaining two people.

"Kaidan, they're trying to flank us. Don't let them get behind us."

The Lieutenant was quick to respond as a hand gesture sent a blue orb soaring into one of the drones. The drone's kinetic barrier flickered once before the warp field crumpled its body into scrap. Three of the remaining four drones suddenly turned from their advancement on Shepard and veered off towards Kaidan. _Oh hell_. Apparently, the Lieutenant was now considered the biggest threat. Dropping his assault rifle to the ground, Shepard's hand found the shotgun on his back as his thumb pressed the activator switch. Even as the weapon unfolded in his hands, a blue glow began to surround his body as he moved out from behind cover.

The lone drone still advancing him went ignored as Shepard focused on the three that had already opened fire on Kaidan. The whine of the shotgun's servos was punctuated with loud staccatos as the Commander unloaded the weapon into the Lieutenant's attackers. The first drone simply exploded as the shower of pellets overloaded its barriers. The second only had time to turn its attention toward this new assailant before being similarly dispatched. Shepard continued to lay down fire at the third drone until he felt the impacts on his barrier from his own attacker. Diving to the ground, he turned his weapon back to the drone focused on him. Apparently, this drone had learned from its predecessors mistakes because it juked to the side of his first shot. A shrill beeping warned him that the weapon had reached its heat limit. Pumping the action to discharge the spent thermal clip, Shepard returned his focus to his attacker only to watch as it was unceremoniously slammed into the ground. He looked over his shoulder to see the blue glow that sheathed Kaidan's body already fading. Shepard turned over to push himself off the ground as the Lieutenant approached.

"Commander, are you alright?"

The Commander gave his body the once over. "Yeah. Barrier took most of the fire. Go check on Jenkins." As Kaidan went over to the downed Corporal, Shepard walked back over to collect his assault rifle. After replacing the shotgun on his back, he moved over to where the Lieutenant had flipped over Jenkins' body.

Kaidan pushed himself up from his position crouching over the body. When he spoke, the Lieutenant's tone was a somber one, "The shots ripped right through his barrier. He never had a chance."

For his part, Shepard wasn't sure what to say. The Lieutenant had probably never lost a comrade before. There was nothing he could say to make it any easier. "We need to get moving Kaidan."

Apparently, that wasn't the response that Kaidan expected. "What do we do about Jenkins' body Commander?"

"It will still be here when the mission is over. The Corporal is dead, but there are others out there that aren't. They are the ones that need our help now. I need you focused Lieutenant."

For a moment, it looked like Kaidan wanted to say something to him. In the end though, he simply acknowledged, "Sir."

Shepard never had been good at pep talks. He had always been more of a doer than a motivator. Speeches were things for people with big ideas and plans. If Kaidan needed some kind of consolation over Jenkins' death, then he would have to talk to a counselor. An awkward silence descended between the two as they began to move further down into the valley. Kaidan seemed to be debating on whether or not to say something. Finally, he seemed to come to a decision.

"Commander."

"Yes Lieutenant?"

"Thanks for the save Shepard. I don't think I would have made it long with all three of those drones firing at me."

"Anytime Kaidan."

Expecting a return to the silence of earlier he was surprise by the next statement. "That was some pretty impressive shotgun work back there. I don't think I would ever want to end up on your bad side."

_Always trying to be friendly._ The man was too nice for his own damn good. "Thanks. I think we're even though since you did get the one shooting at me."

"Nah, that thing was already dead. It just didn't know it yet."

Shepard was glad that he was in front so the Lieutenant couldn't see his smile. _Too damn nice._ "Actually, that last one seemed to be figuring things out fairly well. I think they were learning as the fight went on. They were pretty quick to switch to you after you warped one. They must have some kind of priority targeting system."

Kaidan was skeptical, "that sounds awfully advanced for a VI drone."

In this case, Shepard couldn't help but agree, "Yes it does. But whoever is using these things is already violating Citadel conventions by having weaponized drones anyways." As they moved through a stand of small trees, a familiar humming sound reached their ears again. "Well, speak of the devil." This time, they were ready for the interlopers.

As the two drones came into view, they were immediately met by a hail of gunfire from within the tree line. The first dropped almost instantly as the second turned around and began to fly off in the direction it had come. Its progress was halted almost instantly as a blue field surrounded its body. As it was yanked backward by invisible force, the drone was cut down by a burst of fire from Shepard's rifle.

"They aren't so bad when they don't get the drop on you."

"Only having two of them doesn't hurt much either." Shepard turned his gaze towards the path that the drone had attempted to retreat to. "Those two were just scouts. We have to be getting close now."

The comm silence was broken once again as a second message came through from Nihlus.

"I've found some buildings from the excavation team. Burnt out, just like the outpost earlier. Lots of bodies here Shepard. I'm going to check inside. I'll try to catch up with you at the dig site."

"Acknowledged." Shepard turned to Kaidan after the comm cut out. "You heard the Turian; let's get to that dig site."

Shepard set the pace as fast as he dared. Coming to the edge of the treeline, the two soldiers found themselves overlooking the remains of a heavy firefight. Bodies were scattered over the ground along with the remains of drones and something else entirely. Seeing movement among the dead, he motioned for Kaidan to get down as the two of them crawled towards the rocky edge overlooking the field. The movement he had seen earlier belong a pair drones hovering over the field, as well as something else. This new enemy looked vaguely like some kind of security mech. Their arms and legs were almost humanoid in appearance, but the metal plating that made up their bodies and heads classified them as something else altogether. Shepard silently observed as two pairs of them moved among the bodies. Coming to the body of a fallen marine, two of the mechs picked it up and began walking towards a group of metal tripods set up off to the side of the battle. As the Commander watched, the two mechs placed the body over the center of the tripod before reaching over to activate it. The corpse shot up into the air, propelled upwards by a massive spike that impaled its chest. Shepard heard the sharp intake of breath from Kaidan where he was crouched beside him. _What the fuck is going on here._

Suddenly, one of the bodies on the ground began to move. Pushing herself off of the ground, the Marine made a break for the cover of a nearby rocky outcropping. The two drones immediately began to give chase. Several rounds ricocheted off of her kinetic barrier as the two drones rapidly closed on her. As she dropped into a slide on the ground, the Marine unloaded rounds from a pistol into her two assailants. The two drones exploded from the fire, but the group of mechs removed their own rifles from their backs and turned towards the now prone female. Shepard knew he needed to act fast, or she was dead.

"Kaidan overload them. I'm going in."

Shepard spared no time to find out if Kaidan had heard him. Switching once again to his shotgun, he pushed himself off of the ground into a sprint towards the edge. A small device surged past his vision as an overload went flying towards the farther group of mechs. Impacting the kinetic barrier of one of them, the tiny device discharged tens of thousands of volts into the unsuspecting pair. The second set turned their attention towards the ledge and the sudden appearance of new targets. Calling up his biotics, Shepard leapt off of the edge and into the air.

A feeling of weightlessness engulfed the Commander as his biotic field began to kick in. His barrier coming up around him, Shepard focused all of his attention on the two mechs firing on him. With a sudden burst of biotic energy, Shepard threw himself towards his assailants. The edges of his vision blurred as the velocity made it hard for him to see. The rounds from the mechs' rifles were swatted out of his way with near impunity. The fifteen meters that had separated the Commander from his targets was gone almost instantly. Shepard plowed straight into the first mech. The sudden impact of biotic energy as his barrier erupted off him almost ripped the machine apart. The second mech found itself blasted backwards as the concussive force impacted it. A blast from the shotgun sealed its fate as the machine lifelessly hit the ground.

Still breathing heavily from the exertion, Shepard turned towards the second pair of mechs. He could see them lying on the ground as smoke curled upwards from their bodies. The stillness was suddenly broken as rifle fire stitched their remains. Turning towards the source, Shepard found himself face to face with the Marine from moments before. The white and pink armor she wore seemed out of place among the carnage that littered the field the two found themselves on. Neither of them said a word as both took a moment to catch their breath.

As her breathing slowed, the woman began to speak. "Thanks for the help. I thought I was dead for sure." With little preamble, she continued, "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212."

"Lieutenant Commander Shepard, SSV Normandy." The Commander gestured towards Kaidan as the Lieutenant reached the two of them, "This is Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko. You injured Williams?"

"Nothing serious. Our unit was out on patrol when we were attacked. We tried to get off a distress call, but they started jamming our communications."

Suddenly, Shepard realized that he had seen Ashley before. She had been in the distress message that the Normandy had intercepted. He recognized the armor she was wearing now: definitely not Alliance standard issue. "I think our ship managed to get part of the distress call. You tried to send it about forty minutes ago?"

"Yeah."

"At the time it looked like a pretty heavy fight down here. Did any of the rest of your squad make it?"

Ashley turned back to look at the dead bodies lying around them, "Doesn't look like it. I got knocked out by some kind of blast. I came to a few minutes ago and saw this."

"Any idea on who's behind this?"

"Not a clue. This tech isn't like any I've ever seen. Probably here for the beacon though. The dig site is just beyond this rise."

"Can you take us there Williams."

"Aye Aye, Sir." The Gunnery Chief's voice dropped a couple notches as she led them over the bodies that littered the field, "It's time for some payback."

Shepard and Kaidan moved to either side of their new guide as she led them down the path towards the beacon. The Commander was already trying to gauge the Gunnery Chief's usefulness in a potential conflict. S_he seems eager enough._ After seeing her chase with the drones earlier, Shepard suspected that Ashley would hold her own easily enough. It also didn't hurt to have another person in the squad with Jenkins gone. Still, without the ability to create a barrier that Kaidan and he possessed, she would be vulnerable in a firefight. On the other hand, the armor she was wearing was certainly better than the standard issue the other marines had been wearing. If it had held up to the drones chasing her, then it would hopefully prove sufficient. Looking over, Shepard noticed Kaidan slowly creeping closer to him.

"Commander."

"What is it?"

The Lieutentant looked slightly unsure of what he wanted to say. "I was wondering what that thing was that you did last fight."

_Ah, so that's what it is._ Shepard hadn't really thought about it, but Kaidan probably hadn't been exposed to that technique before. "I'll tell you about it when we're back on the Normandy. Until then, eyes front and center Lieutenant."

The Lieutenant moved into position on Ashley's far side. The squad continued on in this silence for another couple of minutes until the walls of the ravine began to narrow on both sides. Up ahead, the Shepard could see what must have been the entrance to the dig site. Several large and dirty rocks lay turned up on the ground from their excavation. With them blocking the way, he could barely catch a glimpse inside of the crater.

Shepard gestured the two over to him and began to whisper, "Listen up: we hug the far wall going in. I want to keep those boulders between us and the dig site for as long as possible. Once we hit the rocks, I want to split up between different cover positions. Once we are spread out, I'm going to give the signal and we all pop up at once. If it isn't human: I want it dead. Understood?"

There was no hesitation from Kaidan or Ashley as they answered in unison, "Sir." Shepard led the way as the three of them crept along the left side of the path towards the excavation crater. As he got closer, the Commander could hear a clicking noise emanating from the crater. Coming to the last of the excavated rocks he signaled the other two to break off from him. Watching the other two spread out behind the rocks, Shepard tried to get a fix on the clicking sounds coming from the other side. Looking towards his squad, the commander got a quick nod from both that they were ready. Shepard crouched just below the edge of the rock he was behind and switched on his headset. With a muttered command of "now," all three of them popped up from behind the rocks.

Inside the dig site, two mechs turned toward the sudden movement only to be met with a hail of automatic rifle fire. The first one was caught by both Shepard's and Ashley's combined burst and fell nearly instantaneously. The second fired its own weapon in retaliation only to be cut down as it became the target of all three soldiers. As its body twitched on the ground, Shepard and his team moved into the center of the crater.

Ashley looked around the crater confused. "The Beacon was right here earlier. Someone must have moved it."

Kaidan gestured towards one of the fallen automaton's bodies as a white fluid began to leak out onto the ground. "Or something."

Ashley motioned towards a small path leading up the far side of the crater. "We need to check the research camp. If someone moved the Beacon, then that's where its going to be. If not, then maybe the researchers there can give us some answers on who did."

Shepard was doubtful that the researchers would be saying much of anything at this point. "Do you think that anyone up there is still alive?"

Ashley shrugged, "There were a few buildings they could have hid in. If not, it's on the way to the spaceport."

Shepard fired up his comm unit to send a message to Nihlus. "Nihlus, the Beacon isn't at the excavation site. We're going to check the research camp for any clues."

The Spectre's reply was quick in coming. "Roger that. There seems to be a lot of activity going on at the spaceport up ahead. I'm going to check up on it. If our enemy has the beacon, then they'll have to take it there for transport. I'll be in touch if I find anything."

Turning back to his squad, Shepard gestured towards the path on the far side of the crater. "It sounds like Nihlus is getting ahead of us. We need to get to that camp quickly."

The three humans set off in a lose formation. As they came to the far side of the crater, the group was forced to walk upwards in single file as the path narrowed. Finally cresting the other side of the excavation crater, they were able to spread out again as the path began to widen. The billowing cloud of smoke as they approached the research camp all but confirmed what the Commander had been expecting after Nihlus' earlier transmissions.

Kaidan was the first to break the silence, "This place got hit hard."

"Yeah. I don't think we'll be finding any survivors here," Shepard said.

The group entered the ruins of the encampment. Shepard's gaze swept over the devastation before landing on something distinctly out of place. On the left side of the enclosure, six of the metal tripods that he had seen the mechs placing dead bodies on earlier were clustered together. All of them appeared to be occupied as six bodies hung impaled from the spikes. As if sensing the intruder's presence, the spikes began to retract lowering their occupants to the ground.

The sudden movement of the bodies caught Ashley by surprise, "Commander, I think they're alive."

As the creatures extracted themselves from the metal spikes and began to lumber towards them, Shepard was inclined to agree with the Ashley's assessment. "Oh, they're alive alright-" The creatures gave off a raspy moaning sound that turned into a screech as they caught sight of the three humans, "but those things are most definitely not human." Pulling a grenade from the satchel on his leg, Shepard primed the device. "Get down." The Commander lobbed the explosive into the path of the approaching creatures and dived to the ground. The pack seemed oblivious to its presence as they began to run towards the three prone humans. The blinking indicator on the grenade flashed red a final time before the device exploded.

Shepard's kinetic barrier flared up as the explosion sent dozens of tiny shrapnel pieces at the prone figures. The concussion wave passed over them depositing dirt kicked up by the blast onto their hard-suits. The three soldiers glanced up as the dirt fell back to the ground. Immediately pushing themselves off the ground, they advanced on the remains from the explosion. Shepard switched out his assault rifle for his shotgun as the three of them moved closer to the remains. A hissing noise brought the three to a stop as the legless body of one of the creatures tried to drag itself towards them. Digging its clawed hands into the ground, the creature looked like something out of a horror movie as it let lose another unearthly screech. The Commander's shotgun ended its struggles for good as the top part of its head vanished.

"What the fuck are these things?" Ashley questioned.

"I don't know," Shepard responded. "Check the rest of the bodies and make sure they're dead."

As Kaidan and Ashley fanned out to check the remains for any other survivors, Shepard hunched down to have a closer look at the one he killed. The outside of it was a greyish/blue color. Poking his finger into the skin, Shepard had a surprisingly hard time causing any indentation. It felt like some kind of synthetic rubbery material. Other parts of it appeared to have hardened into some kind of toughened fiber. _Actually..._ Shepard used the tip of his gun to poke around in chest cavity. It seemed it the toughened areas followed the general layout of a human skeleton. Flipping the corpse over to look at the front side, a glint of metal caught the Commander's attention.

"Kaidan. Williams. Get over here." The two soldiers hurried over to where Shepard was pulling a metal chain from around the neck of the body. "Look at this." Opening the palm of his hand, Shepard held out the set of Alliance dog tags for the two to see. "These creatures are human, or at least they were human."

Kaidan could only stare down at the body in disbelief as Ashley paced back a forth. Finally coming to a stop she pointed back towards the body, "How the hell do you turn someone into **that**?"

Kaidan gestured back towards the wreckage of the metal tripods, "I think that those things are responsible. Remember when we first found you. The mechs were placing bodies onto the tripods. I'm guessing that something in those is what's changing the bodies."

Kaidan crouched down and began to scan the body with his omni-tool. After a few seconds of looking at the results he held up his omni-tool for the other two to see. "These things are full of synthetic materials. There is barely any tissue left now. How is that even possible?"

"It doesn't make any sense," Shepard agreed. _This entire damn situation doesn't make any sense. First, we have an army of illegal drones and mechs. Now, we're fighting mechanical zombies. _The entire thing was starting to sound like the plot to some kind of horrible science fiction story.

The three of them sat in silence for a moment before the crackling of fire in the background reminded Shepard why they were there. "We still need to check out those buildings. Look for any members of the excavation team."

Kaidan looked glad for something to do as he hurried off towards the unburned prefab sheds. Ashley lingered a second more at the body before she walked off muttering something Shepard couldn't pick up. Looking between the burning building and the body on the ground, he headed off after his squad.

Shepard moved towards the prefab unit Kaidan was poking around. With the lab on fire, the containers were now their best chance of finding any survivors. Kaidan turned at the sounds of the commander's approach.

"I already checked the first container. It looks like it was mostly storage for lab equipment. A few things scattered around in there. I'm guessing that whoever was in there left in a hurry." The two of them turned as the squad's third member called to them.

"Guys, we might have a winner over here." Shepard and Kaidan walked over to find her standing in front of a container. "I tried a general access code, but this one is locked down tight. Someone doesn't want people getting in here."

Kaidan walked over to the access panel. Pulling up his omni-tool interface, he typed a few commands. The keypad on the door lit up in response to his actions before flashing red and shutting off again. The Lieutenant tried another approach. Firing up the access panel again, his omni-tool lit up as a program began running through numbered sequences. However, after a minute of running, Kaidan was no closer to unlocking the door than before he began. He looked over at Shepard in frustration, "I don't know what's going on with it, Commander. I tried using a Military override code and I tried using a decryption key. I might be able to reset the system if I can remove the outer panel."

Ashley made her feelings on the situation known, "Honestly why don't we just blow the hydraulics for the door. We can take out the pressure locks at the top and bottom and just wedge it open."

Shepard pulled up his omni-tool and typed in a few commands. Entering a code into the interface, he stepped past the two soldiers, interrupting their debate on the merits of door hacking versus door destruction. "Why don't you guys let me have a try." Stepping up to the door Shepard placed the palm part of the omni-tool directly over the keypads interface. Almost immediately, the keypad began to respond. However, it wasn't the entry pad that appeared, but a symbol of a spinning tumbler. After a few seconds, the tumbler came to a stop and the keypad glowed green as the pressure locks on the door disengaged. Shepard did a poor job of concealing his smirk as he pulled his hand away from the door.

Kaidan looked suspiciously over at Shepard, "I didn't know you had technical training Commander."

"I don't."

"Then what did you use to open that door?"

"A program."

"What kind of program?"

"Clearly, the type of program that opens doors."

Ashley had managed to maintain a stoic facade throughout this entire exchange. However, Shepard's feigned ignorance finally succeeded in getting a chuckle out of her. "I don't think you're going to get anything out of him."

For his part, Kaidan finally seemed to accept defeat as he sighed, "OK, fine. Can you at least tell me where you got it though?"

Shepard's face lost all trace of humor as he replied, "The answer to that is a bit above your pay grade Lieutenant." Pulling out his pistol, the commander approached the newly unlocked door. Taking a position on one side of it he turned to Ashley, "Shall we?"

The Gunnery Chief took up position on the opposite end of the door. At the Commander's nod, she pressed the button to open the door and swung around into the entry. The sight the greeted Shepard as he came in the door behind her was an unexpectedly welcome one. Two people were crouched in the back corner of the room. A man sat huddled next to a female holding a mantis sniper rifle. _Well, maybe a little less welcome than I thought._ The two civilians looked scared out of their minds by the sudden appearance of other people. Shepard quickly let a hand off his pistol and held it toward the ceiling as he used his arm to push Ashley's weapon up as well. He really didn't want the sniper rifle wielding woman to get jittery because, judging from the terrible way she was trying to grip it, she had no idea how to use the damn thing. Stepping out in front of Ashley, Shepard kept his hands held up as he spoke softly to the room's two occupants. "I'm Commander Shepard of the SSV Normandy. What are your names?"

The woman seemed to recover from her shock as the man started to mumble to himself. "I'm Dr. Warren and this is Dr. Manuel."

"Dr. Warren, can I get you to please put down the rifle." Having forgotten the firearm in her hands, Dr. Warren dropped the sniper rifle as if it had burned her. Shepard winced as the weapon clattered to the floor of the container. Turning back to the scientists huddled in the corner, the Commander tried to do a visual check on the two. The female seemed to be alright, but the male continued to huddle in the corner mumbling to himself.

"Are the two of you injured?"

"No, Commander. We've been in here the whole time. The marines bought us time to hide in here when the attack came. They all…they're all dead." As she said this, the man's mumbles became actual sentences, "We will all die. The age of humanity has ended."

Shepard turned a glance towards the rambling doctor, "You sure he's fine?"

"Dr. Manuel has a brilliant mind. Unfortunately, he isn't the most…stable person. Genius and madness are two sides of the same coin they say."

Manuel began another rant as Shepard tried to bring things back on topic, "Doctor, I need to know about the Beacon."

"Well, it's a kind of data module: a communications hub for a galaxy wide network. It's remarkably well preserved. This could be the greatest scientific discovery of-"

Shepard didn't have time to listen to a lecture, "Its location Doctor. I need to know the beacon's location."

Dr. Warren appeared startled by the Commander's sudden abruptness. "It was taken to the spaceport."

Shepard wasted no time, "Williams, we need to get to that spaceport right away." As Ashley turned and headed out the door, Dr. Warren moved to pick up the mantis again. Shepard moved forward and took the gun from off of the floor. Pressing the button to fold up the weapon, he took it in his hand as he turned back towards the doctors.

"Commander, without that weapon we'll be defenseless."

Shepard flipped the pistol in his other hand around to hold it out handle first to the doctor. "I think you'll find this one a little easier to use. I'll also lock the door behind us. You don't open that door for anyone." Waiting for Dr. Warren to nod in response he turned towards the exit. Once outside the building, Shepard pushed on the panel button to close the door. Once it closed he smashed the butt end of the folded up sniper rifle against the panel. Turning back to the expectant faces of his squad, he looked over at Ashley. "How's your marksmanship Williams."

"Damn good Sir."

Handing over the folded up sniper rifle, Shepard turned to Kaidan. "You and I are going to be the front line. Our barriers can take the punishment while Williams picks off targets from the rear. We're going to be hitting hard and moving fast. You throw everything you got at them. We need to reach that beacon before they can take it off-world. Are the two of you ready for this?" The hard set of their faces told him they were even before their replies did. "Let's move out."

* * *

A/N: Meant to have this chapter out for New Years, but life just has a way of interfering like that. Not too many notes to post for changes this chapter. A few of the changes won't become apparent until later anyways and will be addressed within the story at that time. The most obvious one here is that nobody knows that the attackers are geth.

I think this one is pretty self explanatory. When Ashley says in Mass Effect 1 "I think they're geth." when asked about the attackers the big question is: why would you think this? No one, outside of the quarians, has seen the geth in 300 years. Since the quarians aren't exactly simpatico with the Citadel races, or anyone really for that matter, I don't expect they would be sharing all their geth data with the rest of the galaxy since it is what screwed them over in the first place. I also am assuming that after 300 years, the geth probably look nothing like their primitive counterparts from the past. Yes, I realize that ME3 pretty much says they do, but that is just lazy game designers not wanting to create, rig, and animate new models. So yeah, Shepard and company have no idea that the geth are involved at first.

This kinda segues nicely into my second point. Why are drones not prevalent in the ME universe. There is no cannon reason for this. Given the military's obsession with this one, it should have played a much bigger role. Why doesn't everyone use drones and why are ships even piloted? The best reason I could come up with in this case was that there were Citadel Conventions baring militarized drone use. After the whole quarian/geth conflict, the citadel became paranoid about a similar thing happening in Citadel controlled space. Thus, they banned the use of drones for offensive combat related uses. Using them to spy is ok. Using them to actually fight is not. However, there is a loophole in the law. It is only written to prevent militaries from utilizing drones. Thus, the private sector still uses armed "security mechs." To be fair, looking at all of the situations that come up in the ME series with machines turning on their creators, this wouldn't have been an thing unreasonable thing to do.

Oh yeah, thermal clips. So I decided to keep the concept from ME2 because, honestly, it actually makes a lot of sense. Mass accelerators would produce quite a bit of heat from use and that heat does have to go somewhere. Simply draining it into the gun doesn't work because once up to capacity, the heat sink would take many minutes if not hours to allow the heat to dissipate. That being said, the whole game convention of having thermal clips that are only good for one or two shots is ridiculous and you certainly wont be seeing any of that.

That's it for now. Any other minor changes I have made will be addressed within the next couple of chapters and I don't want to be redundant.


	4. Arrivals and Departures

A/N: Yep, still BioWare's

* * *

Shepard took the lead as his squad moved away from the camp. As they neared the crest of the hill, a single shot echoed from the direction of the spaceport. _Could there still be marines fighting down there_? When no more sounds were forthcoming, Shepard decided that it must have been something else. There was always the possibility of other survivors. Coming to the top of the ridge, he saw the metal grating that signaled the path down towards their destination. Firing up his comm, he tried to message Nihlus.

"Nihlus, we know the beacon's location: its already been moved to the spaceport. We're in route to its location now."

Shepard waited for a response from the Spectre, but nothing came. _Maybe Nihlus ran into trouble. _On the other hand, he might be unable to respond without giving away his position. Either way, they still needed to push forward. _It's not like it won't be easy enough to find us once things get going._ Starting off down the hillside, Shepard's squad finally caught a glimpse of the landing tower. About the same time, the three of them also caught a glimpse of something much larger.

"What is that, Commander?"

_I've been hearing that phrase a lot today. Too many questions and not enough answers._ As it was, the Gunnery Chief was the one with the answer this time. "That's the ship the mechs were unloaded from when they arrived on the planet."

"That ship is massive. Why would you ever bring a ship that big into the atmosphere to unload?"

As if responding to Kaidan's question, the ship began to rise slowly into the air. Electric charge from the ships mass effect core arced off of its frame into the ground as it began to slide upwards into the clouds. A sound not unlike a massive horn being blown echoed over the valley as the ship pulled away.

Shepard turned towards his companions, "It's gone now. Common, we need to get to that spaceport."

The three of them started down the hillside towards their destination. As the valley opened up in front of them, they got their first look at the spaceport itself. A moment's look was enough to spend the squad scrambling behind the nearest boulder. Moving to the edge of their makeshift cover, Shepard snuck a peak around the corner. After a few moments, he turned back to confer with his squad.

"Ok, it looks like the entire spaceport is overrun. It's about a hundred meters to the ramp from here. There are at least a dozen of those zombie things between us and the ramp."

Ashley turned a questioning look on the commander, "Zombies, Sir?"

Shepard wasn't in the mood, "The not quite dead bodies, the mechanical dead people, the human husks: whatever you want to call them." Ashley seemed sufficiently startled by his outburst to quiet down as the Commander returned to gesturing on the ground. "Now, there are at least a dozen of them between us and the entrance ramp. I saw at least three of the mechs on the platform. Here is how we are going to do this: Kaidan and I are going to draw the attention of those creatures out in the field." Shepard turned by to the Gunnery Sargent. "While the two of us take care of them, I want you to take out the mechs on the platform: put that sniper rifle to use. Now, are you two ready to go?"

After receiving twin nods of acknowledgement, Shepard crept towards the edge of their cover. _I probably shouldn't have snapped at her like that._ This entire mission had him on edge and Shepard was willing to bet that it was the same for the lieutenant and gunnery chief. Still, there would be time to play nice when this mess was over with. Calling up his biotics, Shepard brought up a barrier around himself as Kaidan followed suit from the opposite side. Priming a grenade from the satchel on his leg, he checked over the other two, "OK. Now!"

Shepard darted out from behind cover and stormed down the hill. Ashley's first shot came from behind him before he even made it ten meters. The sudden hissing of the pack of mechanical zombies let Shepard know that they had seen the two humans approaching. Almost as one, the entire group of creatures turned towards the two soldiers and began running full out towards them. Lifting his arm, the commander hurled the grenade towards the approaching swarm. His helmet momentarily blinded him as its visor automatically dimmed to protect his eyes from the explosion. As it lightened, Shepard could see that four of the charging horde had been taken out by the blast. The echo of a shot from behind told him that Ashley had found her second target. Skidding to a stop, Shepard brought up his shotgun as the mass of moving bodies approached him.

A blue glow caught the corner of his vision as Kaidan unleashed a biotic attack. The air in front of the lieutenant seemed to come alive as a line of biotic concussions cascaded towards the wall of enemies. Those caught on the outer edge were thrown to the side while the few in its direct path were torn apart by the force. _Well, that was impressive._ The few creatures that had been unscathed continued their advance, heedless of their decreased numbers. Their running brought them right up to the business end of Shepard's Katana. The first challenger was nearly torn in half as the blast caught it in the midsection. The second one to approach him was summarily decapitated as it tried to lunge at him. A third one fell as it was cut into by Kaidan's rifle. Williams' sniper rifle echoed from behind Shepard as a forth one of the creatures suddenly lost a sizable portion of its head. One of the oncoming attackers fell short of the two of men as it tripped over the bodies beginning to accumulate just downhill from the two soldiers. It seemed to struggle on the ground momentarily before its body began to spark with energy. Suddenly, the creature exploded with a blue flash. Electricity arced thru the air as the explosion bloomed outward. His HUD went dark as Shepard saw a last creature approaching them. He held out his shotgun, but to no avail as the weapon failed to fire.

Dropping the useless weapon, Shepard's arm began to glow with biotic energy. As the last of the creatures made a lung at the Commander, his fist swung out to meet it. The biotically enhanced punch caught the creature dead center. Its chest completely caved in as the biotic field hit launched it backward several meters. Shepard let out the breath he had been holding as he surveyed the carnage of the field. The remains of the mechanized corpses lay scattered about from the fight. Shepard picked up his shotgun and walked over to where Kaidan was standing.

"Not bad Lieutenant."

Kaidan's voice held an amused tone as he shot back an answer, "You did pretty well yourself, Sir."

Shepard held up his shotgun, "Any idea why our suits and weapons are down?"

"I think that the creature that exploded released some kind of energy surge. Seemed pretty similar to an overload charge. Our suits are designed to shut off their systems if that happens so the circuitry doesn't fry. They should come on again just fine if we reset them."

Pulling back the armored plate that protected his omni-tool, Shepard flipped the switch for the suits power systems into the off position. After a few seconds he flipped it back on. His HUD immediately sprang back to life as startup data scrolled past his eyes. Closing up the panel, Shepard moved on to his shotgun. After holding down the activation switch for a few seconds the weapon finally came to life as it collapsed down into its portable state. Pressing the button again, the gun extended back to its ready state. _That could have been worse._

At that moment, Ashley walked up to the two males of the group, "Are you guys OK?"

"Seems like it."

"I saw one of those things explode on you guys."

"Kaidan thinks it was some kind of energy surge. Disabled our weapons and hard-suits. If all of those creatures are capable of that, then we'll have to be careful to take them out before they can do it again." Shepard suddenly remembered something, "I only heard you take two shots at the platform during the fight, but could have sworn that there were three mechs on that platform."

Ashley just shrugged, "After I got the first one, the other two were quite quick to take cover behind some of the equipment. I just decided to shoot one of the power cells near them."

_A marksman and resourceful._ Shepard's opinion of the Gunnery Chief was on the rise. The three of them had manage to take out a small army of synthetic enemies to get here. Shepard decided that his two companions had proven quite proficient during this mission. Still, there would be time for congratulatory back patting when the mission was over. "Good job. Now let's get moving."

Coming up the ramp to the spaceport's loading dock, the trio was forced to detour around the fire caused by the destruction of the power core. Spreading out to look for the beacon, Kaidan recognized a familiar form lying on the ground.

"Commander, its Nihlus."

Jogging over to have a look, Shepard was followed by a slower moving and confused Williams.

"What's a turian doing here?"

As Shepard bent down for a closer look at the body, Kaidan decided to answer for him. "He was a Spectre. He was on the Normandy with us."

Shepard was too busy examining the body to pay attention to the conversation. A good chunk of Nihlus' face was deformed from the shot that killed him. Tilting the face downward, Shepard found what he was looking for as he saw a small hole in the back of the Spectre's head. It looked like the bullet had entered his head just below the crest that came off of his skull. _Guess you should have been wearing a helmet there, fella. _Looking back at the exit wound, Shepard guessed that the gun of whoever had shot Nihlus had to have been almost level with his head. The fact that the round failed to make it through the his skull also meant it couldn't have been a very powerful weapon_._ A sudden crashing sound brought Shepard's attention snapping back to his surroundings. Snatching up his shotgun from the ground, Shepard joined Kaidan and Ashley as they all trained their guns on the stack of crates the sound had emanated from.

The tension was broken by a panicked human voice, "Wait, don't shoot me. I'm human." A man emerged from behind the stack of crates and moved forward into view. "My name is Powell. I'm a just dock worker here at the spaceport."

"How did you manage to survive the fighting?" Shepard was surprised that anyone was still alive in the area.

The man fidgeted nervously, "I was hidden away in the back when the creatures showed up. I saw what happened to your friend. The other one killed him."

Shepard was confused, "What other one? You mean another turian?"

Powell nodded, "Yeah. There was another turian already here when your friend showed up. He called him Saren. The two of them seemed like they knew each other. Your friend let his guard down, then the other one shot him."

_As if this whole thing couldn't get any stranger._ First, a mechanical army shows up and kills most of the local population to get the Beacon. Now Nihlus was dead, and apparently someone he knew killed him. Whoever it was, this turian was probably the one controlling the mechs. _Actually, speaking of the beacon,_ "Where is the beacon? We were told that it had been moved to the spaceport."

Powell gestured to the walkway off to the right, "It's over on the other platform. It's where the other turian must be headed. He took the cargo train that way after he killed your friend."

As Powell began to lament on the misfortune the beacon had brought the colony, Shepard tuned him out in favor of planning his next move. They needed to get on that cargo train and get to the other section of the spaceport. Shepard nodded his head at the other two to move out, but Ashley wasn't quite finished with Powell yet.

"How was it that you managed to avoid capture?"

Powell gestured impatiently at the mess of crates behind him, "I told you I was back behind that stack of crates over there."

Ashley took a step towards the man. Shepard couldn't understand her aggressive posture until her next question. "What are you doing around the containers for military hardware? You aren't authorized to be back there."

Powell shifted nervously on his feet. Ashley took another step towards him as she raised her gun threateningly. Powell finally seemed to crack as words began to quickly from his mouth. "OK look, me and a few of the other workers run a little smuggling operation out of the port. Sometimes, some of the marines stationed here want things you can't exactly get through requisitions. We hook them up when they need it. In exchange, the supply officer fudges the numbers a bit when they put in requisition forms. A few extra weapons and parts get ordered and lost on arrival. We sell off some military surplus; the marines get a bit of extra entertainment. No one gets hurt. I was unloading our share of the shipment when those things showed up, so I had to stay hidden when everyone was running around."

Shepard's suspicion rapidly dissolved into amusement as the story went on. Black market gun running was as old as firearms themselves. He had no doubt that similar situations occurred on almost any Alliance colony with a marine detachment. Hell, Shepard had bought supplies from groups like Powell's before for certain N7 operations. Sometimes you needed equipment that couldn't be traced. However, Ashley seemed to be having a very different reaction to the story. As Powell went on, her grip on the assault rifle in her hands began to tighten noticeably. Ashley looked about ready to shoot the man by the time he finished.

"So, you're telling me that while Alliance marines were dying less than a hundred meters from you, you were too busy hiding in here on crates full of guns to help them? I should just kill you right now."

Kaidan tried to interject the voice of reason into the conversation, "Ashley, calm down."

_She looks like she might do it too._ Though Shepard was mildly interested in seeing whether the Gunnery Chief would actually kill Powell, the more pressing concern of his mission outweighed some petty smuggler. Deciding to put a stop to the situation and get back on track, Shepard turned towards Ashley.

The Commanders voice was clipped when he spoke, "Williams, enough. We have a mission to complete. Let's get moving Soldier." His words had the desired effect as Ashley lowered her weapon and turned back towards her two companions. At Shepard's command, the three of them moved off towards the lower receiving platform for the cargo train. As they walked away the Commander could hear Ashley muttering to herself. "Not worth the round anyways."

As the group began to move off, Powell called over to them, "What am I supposed to do?"

Shepard already found himself getting irritated with the man as he replied, "I'd suggest you go back to hiding: it's worked well so far. It looks like this is your lucky day Powell."

Powell looked on in abandon at the fires that still burned around the spaceport, "You call **this** lucky?"

Shepard didn't bother to hide his irritation at the man in his reply, "For **you**."

The Commander and his team moved towards the receiving station for the cargo train. As they came to the boarding platform, one thing became very obvious to all three of them.

"Uh, Commander. The train isn't here."

"Figure that one out all by yourself there, Lieutenant." _Of course the train isn't here._ Now that Shepard thought about it, it made perfect sense. Powell just told them that this Saren guy had taken the train to the other section of the spaceport. The question was: how did they get it back over on their side?

Shepard turned to Ashley, "Is there some kind of control panel we can access to bring the train to this platform?"

"Yes. That box on the far end of the loading platform should be it."

Moving to the end of the platform, Shepard looked at the control box for the cargo train. It looked like some kind of maintenance box. A hinged metal cover was hiding access to the system. Looking at the keypad on it Shepard turned to Kaidan.

"You think you can open this?"

Kaidan motioned the Commander aside as he crouched down in front of the panel to take a look. "Piece of cake, Sir. This thing is just a maintenance box: basic override and shutoff for the system. The design is almost ten years old." Kaidan used his omni-tool to pry the cover on the keypad off. Looking at the wiring underneath, He stripped the sheathing from a couple of wires and connected them to leads on his omni-tool. With that done, he entered a few commands and the indicator light went from green to red. The Lieutenant pulled open the box to find only a couple of toggle switches inside. Looking at the labels for them, he flipped a switch down. Straightening up, Kaidan turned towards Shepard, "Trains on its way."

The three of them walked back over to the loading area of the platform as they waited for the train to arrive. As the flat bed of the train pulled into the station, one thing became very clear: the train was already occupied. Three mechs crouched behind dividers that lined the sides of the cars. In the midst of them, a single mech stood in the aisle. Almost twice as tall as the others around it, the behemoth carried a comparably large weapon in its hands. _Well, __that's going to make things difficult. _The large mech began to slowly advance forward as his smaller escorts moved between metal cargo dividers for cover. Shepard's squad quickly sought refuge behind a similar barrier themselves.

The Commander looked over at his companions, "So, any ideas on this one?"

Ashley removed the sniper rifle from her back, "I can try to take out the big one, but I'll need the two of you to draw their attention."

"OK. Kaidan, I want you to fire an overload at the group before she starts shooting. We'll need to drop that thing's kinetic barriers if she is going to take a shot. You and I are going to draw attention so she gets the shot off, understood."

Kaidan was less confident, "I'm not sure that an overload charge will do much if its arcing between that many targets."

"We'll find out. Williams, I want you on that corner there. Kaidan and I will pop up and draw fire for you. After Kaidan's overload hits, I want you to put a round through that big mechs' head. Understood?"

"Sir."

Shepard switched his assault rifle to full auto as he turned to Kaidan, "We go on three. One. Two. Three."

A blue glow surrounded the two of them as they popped out of cover and let lose with their assault rifles. The advancing mechs crouched into cover at the fire with one notable exception. The large one turned to bring its massive weapon to bear on the two of them. Kaidan removed one hand from his rifle to launch the overload as Shepard continued to suppress their targets. Suddenly, the large mechs' gun let loose a torrent of fire at the two of them. The overload hit the mechs kinetic barrier and released its energy among the group of them. Seemingly unfazed by the thousands of volts coursing along its body, the large mech only continued to pour fire on the two marines. The storm of rounds tore through their biotic barriers after only a few moments and their suits kinetic barriers less than a second later. Diving for cover, Shepard felt one of the projectiles tear into the side of his helmet as he went down. To his left, Ashley's sniper rifle barked twice as the Gunnery Chief tried to take down the mechanical behemoth. When the sound of mechs fire didn't let up, Shepard grabbed Ashley's leg to drag her back behind cover. He was just in time as rounds from the mechs' weapon stitched the metal area she had been lying on a second before. The three of them sat behind cover catching their breath as the fire from the large mechs' weapon finally stopped. Kaidan and Shepard both ejected thermal clips from their rifles whose barrels were visibly radiating heat.

Ashley turned towards the other two, "That big one is armed with a goddamn rotary cannon. My shots barely scratched that thing. I think that Kaidan's overload took out one of the small ones, but there are at least two more left along with that big one."

Shepard moved over the prone form of the Gunnery Chief to sit at the edge of their cover. Turning to Ashley, he motioned to the sniper rifle she was holding.

Shepard set the rifle on the ground and eased it towards the corner. With his hand touching the weapons handle, the lower right corner of his suit's HUD updated with an overlay of the image from the scope of the rifle. Shepard slowly slid the rifle out from behind their cover until he got a look down the center aisle. The large mech had resumed its advance towards the end of the train where the Commander and his team sat. Flanking it, two of the smaller mechs had forsaken cover in favor of keeping a clear line of fire on their now isolated position. The trio moved cautiously forward, but they were less than forty meters out now. Shepard pulled the rifle back and turned toward his companions.

"The big mech is still up; and it doesn't look any worse for wear. He has got two of the little ones flanking him. Plan A didn't seem to work so well, so we are going with plan B: overwhelming force." Shepard turned to Kaidan, "How many overload charges have you got left?"

"Only two, Sir."

"Well, your going to use both of those when I tell you to." Shepard removed his last two grenades from his ordinance pack. Turning to Ashley, he handed over both of the explosives. "You're going to throw both of these."

Kaidan looked between Ashley and Shepard, "And what exactly will **you** be doing while this is going on, Sir?"

"I'm going to draw fire from the mechs so that you two will have the chance to get that ordinance downrange."

"Shepard, there is no cover out there. That mechs' gun shredded our barriers in seconds. If you try to draw fire away from us, you're a dead man."

Shepard tone left no room for argument as he turned on Kaidan, "I know what I'm doing, **Lieutenant**. There is a divider about ten meters from here that I can take cover behind. That gun took a couple seconds to spool up when he fired at us. I'll only be taking fire from the smaller mechs until it does. I can cross that distance before then."

Kaidan finally relented under the Commander's stare, "Ten meters is an awfully long way, Sir."

Shepard let the challenge fade from his tone, "I can move pretty fast when I want to. Now get ready."

Of course, Shepard was anything but confident as he moved to the edge of the groups cover. Switching to his shotgun, he stole a glance over his shoulder to make sure Kaidan and Ashley were in position. Pulling up a barrier around himself, the Commander tried to visualize what things looked like on the other side. He would only have a second or two to nail down his trajectory before he would be cut down. At least, he thought he would have that long. _I'm pretty sure that there was a slight spool up delay on that gun._ Pulling in a deep breath, Shepard stepped out of cover.

Immediately, the Commander noticed that the mechs had moved farther than he thought they would. Instead of the thirty meters he had expected; the machines had advanced to just under twenty meters. A hail of projectiles smacked into his barrier as the smaller mechs instantly opened fire on him. Ignoring them, Shepard instead focused on the divider he needed to reach. A familiar feeling of weightlessness filled him as he shot towards his target. A line of fire followed him as the larger mech's gun finished spooling up. The remains of his barrier erupted off of him as Shepard smashed into the divider. Pain shot up his side as he hid behind the metal wall. The fire from his attackers began to chew into the metal barricade separating the two. Out of the corner of his eye, Shepard saw the first of the overload projectiles zip past his position. Shepard tried to tuck himself as far as possible behind the metal wall. _I hope they are still far enough away._ A second one passed by the Commander's position just as he heard the discharge of the first overload. He ducked his head between his legs make his profile smaller as the sound of the second overload going off was accompanied by the clanking sound of the first grenade landing. The concussion of the grenade was deafening as Shepard felt a wave of heat pass him by. A second later, the other grenade detonated with equal fervor. Metallic pinging sounded as pieces of shrapnel imbedded themselves in the Commander's temporary cover.

Shepard was still trying to regain his bearings as the pounding of footsteps signaled the approach of Kaidan and Ashley. A steady ringing in his ears drowned out their words as he pushed himself back to his feet. Shepard held up a hand to silence the other two as he waited for the ringing in his ears to subside. As it finally began to fade, he turned to look at the concerned faces of his squad mates.

Ashley looked contrite as she spoke, "I'm sorry, Sir. I didn't know how close those mechs were going to be to your position."

Shepard finished pulling off his helmet to get some fresh air before he answered. "That makes two of us." Looking over at the ravaged bodies of the mechs, Shepard decided to put a quick end to the Gunnery Chief's guilt. "No need to apologize. Things didn't go exactly as planned, but the results are about as good as we could have hoped for." Holding up a hand to forestall Ashley's rebuttal, Shepard couldn't stop a winch as pain shot up his side.

Kaidan, who had thus far been silent, voiced his concerns. "Are you injured, Commander?" Without waiting for an answer, he brought up his omni-tool to scan Shepard.

"My barrier absorbed a little too much fire from the mechs back there. When I hit the wall, it couldn't cushion the impact as well as I would have liked. I think I fractured a rib back there."

Kaidan glanced up for his omni-tool. "Two, actually. You'll need to get some medi-gel on that if we are going to continue."

Shepard was already way ahead of Kaidan on that front as he selected the option on his omni-tool. The pain in his side began to fade almost immediately as his suit injected the salve onto the selected area. His discomfort dealt with, the Commander returned to more important matters. "We need to get moving. This train can take us to the other section of the spaceport."

The trio moved back towards the far end of the cargo train. At the end, a holographic display functioned as the control scheme for the transport. Pressing the button to depart, Shepard felt the bed of the train lurch slightly before it began to smoothly accelerate away from the docking port. The Commander had to yell over his shoulder to be heard as they began to pick up speed, "Williams, how far away is the other platform?"

"About 4 kilometers, Sir."

_I hope we don't encounter any more of those large mechs._ With their heavier ordinance depleted, they would be left with no easy way to combat anything similar. Another unpleasant thought followed right on the heels of the first one. For all they knew, they could be walking into one giant ambush right the train had come to their platform occupied, there were almost certainly going to be hostiles on the other end. As the port on the far side came into view, Shepard signaled his team to duck behind one of the metal dividers. He was rather surprised when their arrival was not met with heavy resistance. In fact, their arrival was not met with any resistance at all. Shepard held position for several seconds as he waited for an attack that never came.

Ashley shared a similar suspicion, "They had to know we were coming. Hell, some of them were even on the train. This doesn't make any sense."

"You're right," Shepard agreed, "But we can't afford to wait around." The three cautiously made their way off of the cargo train and onto the loading dock. With no cover in sight, the Commander was expecting their enemy to fire down on them from the higher platform at any moment. As they moved up the ramp to the upper level, his suspicion turned to outright confusion when there were no enemies to be seen anywhere.

Kaidan made his own observation, "Maybe they're all gone. We did see that ship leaving earlier."

Shepard found himself musing Kaidan's point, "Well if they're here for the beacon then the only reason they would have left is… shit. We need to reach that platform quickly."

The three of them picked up their pace as they moved towards the loading platform at the far end of the port. A sudden mechanical clicking sound brought the group to a halt. It was the same sound that some of the mechs earlier had been making. Motioning for the other two to follow him, Shepard silently led the group towards the edge of the dividing wall between the loading dock for the train and the landing pad. Turning back to Ashley, Shepard motioned towards the sniper rifle on her back. After she handed it over, the Commander hit the release and pushed it slowly to the wall's edge. As his suit HUD updated with the view from the rifles scope, he got his first view of what awaited them around the corner. There was a small assortment of crates and storage containers that looked like they had been pushed off to the side to make room for something. The something in question was a thin metallic monolith that sat on the edge of the dock. I_t looks like the Beacons still here at least._ Shepard continued to pan the rifle to the side until he found the source of the noise from earlier. Six mechs stood around on the platform. They were arranged in a lose semicircle around some kind of… s_hit._ Shepard may not have been a trained tech expert, but his training had certainly taught him to recognize the object that the mechs stood guard over. Pulling back the rifle, Shepard turned around and motioned his companions away from the corner.

The Commander's voice barely rose above a whisper as he spoke to the other two, "We have a problem." Activating his omni-tool, Shepard pulled up the image his suit had recorded. "There is a bomb on the other side of that platform. It has six mechs guarding it."

Kaidan pulled Shepard's arm towards him to have a closer look at the image. After a moment, he released the arm and called up a diagnostic on his omni-tool. "It doesn't match any descriptions in my database. Still, it looks like some kind of thermonuclear device. Those rounded pipes coming off the side probably contain hydrogen fuel for a secondary fusion stage. It's hard to tell from the picture, but I would guess the yield at anywhere between twelve to sixteen megatons."

_Wonderful. Because this day just wasn't interesting enough._ "We need to defuse that bomb. Kaidan, are you up to it?"

The Lieutenant looked unsure, "I don't know, Sir. I've never seen this kind of configuration before. I'll can't give you anything concrete until I can get a look inside it."

_At least he's honest._ "Then we'll have to get you the chance." Shepard switched his omni-tool to a wider picture with the mechs. "The mechs are set up in a lose spread around the bomb. We don't know if it's on a timer or a trigger, so we assume anyone of them can set it off. That means we need to neutralize all six of them before any one of them can make it to the device. We also need to do it with minimal disturbance to the bomb in case it has any anti-tampering devices on it. That rules out the possibility of most biotics. You have any other tricks up your sleeve?"

"I could take a couple out of the fight if I hit them with a lift, Commander. With how they are spread out though, I can't hit more than two with a single shot. I'll need at least a few seconds to build up enough energy for a second one."

"Ok, I want you to hit the two closest ones with that then. Ashley, I want you to take out the two on the right side with your sniper. They'll be at your ten o'clock position when you come around the corner, but you'll be doing this blind until we go. The scope gave a range of twenty-three meters for the bomb so expect about a twenty-four to twenty-five meter shot on both of them. You think you can make that?"

Ashley took the offered rifle from Shepard's hand, "Piece of cake, Commander."

"After you're done with your two, I want you to help Kaidan to down the two mechs he immobilizes. I'm going to be going for the two on the left side. I want you take your shots as soon as I start moving. Remember, I'll be going from the outside of the corner while you're shooting from the inside, so try not to hit me when you're shooting, yeah?"

"Naturally, Sir."

"Commander, if you charge in there then the concussive force of your barrier blowing off might trigger the bomb," Kaidan pointed out. "Why not simply use a pull field as well?"

"Unfortunately, that's not in my repertoire. Don't worry though. I don't have to blow off my barrier when I stop a charge. I only do it to cushion the impact. In this case, I'll have one of the mechs to do that for me instead. My shotgun will take care of things from there."

Of course, Shepard didn't bother to tell the Lieutenant that without his barrier to cushion his impact, the collision with the mech wouldn't be a very smooth one. _No need to worry him more. He'll have enough to worry about if we get to that bomb._ Shepard switched to his shotgun as Kaidan checked over his omni-tool and Ashley practiced the movements for her shot. After a moment, he called the two over and the three of them stacked up on the corner.

There was nothing for the three to say as they began to pivot around the outside of the wall. Either the plan would work, or they would be dead. Shepard waited to call up his barrier until he was just clearing the corner so the glow wouldn't give away their position. However, the second he cleared the wall, the six mechs all turned towards his position. The Commander didn't waste any time. His walk turned into a slight stutter step as he took a slight jump. Less than six inches into the air, Shepard shot off towards the left side of the bomb. Time seemed to slow as he shot towards site of the bomb and its defenders. Shepard could distantly hear the sound of Ashley's first shot, but didn't dare turn his head to see if it hit. Even the blue orb of Kaidan's biotic pull seemed to stop moving away from him as Shepard's velocity increased. At least three of the mechs had opened fire on Shepard during his transit, but their shots only slapped against ineffectually against the incoming tide of biotic energy.

The mech the Commander had targeted suddenly seemed to realize the precariousness of its position as it tried to avoid the incoming human projectile. It only managed to move partially out of the way as Shepard collided with its left side. Pain exploded in his side as his cracked ribs protested their rough treatment. The impact sent both the Commander and the mech tumbling end over end as the force sent both bodies sprawling. Shepard found himself in an awkward tangle of limbs with his target as they skidded to a stop at the feet of a second mech. The machine seemed to hesitate a moment over whether to shoot the Commander while he lay tangled with its comrade. This moment proved costly as Shepard thrust the shotgun he still gripped in his right hand up at the machines torso and pulled the trigger. At such a close range, the mechs' kinetic barriers didn't even kick in as the pellets tore up through its stomach area into its chest.

As the mech standing over him fell lifelessly to the ground, Shepard swung his arm around to shot the second one still tangled up with him. Before he could line up a shot, his shotgun was ripped from his hands by a sudden impact on his wrist. A second impact slammed the Commander's head back into the metal plating of the platform as the mech lashed out once again with its leg. His right hand made a grab for the pistol at his side only to come up empty. _Why the hell did I give my pistol to the scientist?_ A third impact had him seeing stars as his faceplate cracked under the force of the blow. The mech aimed a final blow at Shepard's faceplate, but this time the he was ready for it. Catching the offending appendage in his hands, the Commander's body began to glow with biotic light. The same light momentarily sheathed the mech's body before its struggles were cut short as its entire torso crumpled inward.

Shepard let go of the now defunct mech's leg as he slumped backwards onto the platform. The sound of booted steps approaching him let him know that Kaidan and Ashley had made it over to the bomb area. Reminding himself that it wasn't over yet, the Commander pushed himself up into a sitting position. Finally managing to untangle his legs from the mech's body, Shepard pushed himself to his feet. Ashley ran over to check on him as Shepard removed his assault rifle from his back.

"Are you ok?"

Shepard's side burned as he turned towards the Gunnery Chief. _Not particularly. _"I'll be fine. Is Kaidan on the bomb?"

Ashley nodded, and the two moved over to where Kaidan was bent over the device in question. The Lieutenant seemed to be somewhat frustrated as he consulted his omni-tool. "Commander, I've never seen any programming language like the one this device is using. Hell, I don't even understand the symbols on the control panel. I don't think I'll be defusing this one with software."

That wasn't the answer Shepard wanted to hear, "Then what are our options and how long do we have?"

Kaidan glanced back over at the bombs control panel, "We're going to have to open it up and do this manually. I don't know what these symbols are, but I can tell you there are now only two of them where there were three."

Shepard suddenly found himself quite galvanized by the Lieutenant's words, "We had better be quick about this then. What do we do first?"

Kaidan was examining the cover the panel was attacked to when he spoke, "I don't see any time of anti-tampering device here. OK Commander, I need you to take your omni-tool and slice off the bolts on that side holding down this metal panel."

Unfortunately, Shepard's omni-tool lacked much of the functionality of a technician's, including a plasma cutter. Looking at the tiny bolts, the Commander did the next best thing. Smashing the butt of his rifle into the protrusions, he was able to break them off with little effort. This action drew a look from the Lieutenant.

"I thought we were trying to minimize disturbance to the bomb."

"I think we're a little past that point."

"Well then, make yourself useful and help me remove this cover." The two men lifted the cover off until it caught on the wire leads for the control panel. Kaidan turned to Ashley, "Ashley, I need you to hold this end so I can get at the inside. Make sure you guys don't snap the leads."

Ashley moved over to hold the other end of the cover piece. Kaiden moved around to the back of the device to look inside. "Well, we might be in for some luck after all. This is about as standard of a setup as you can get for a bomb like this. The core and shielding are probably uranium. It looks like the trigger is made up of a series of eezo cores. When the timer hits zero: an electrical current will be sent through the cores and create a gravity pocket that compresses the uranium core until it reaches critical mass. All I need to do to stop it is find the power leads for the cores and sever them."

As Kaidan leaned farther over the bomb's internals to find the proper cables, Shepard wondered about his need to talk while working. It certainly didn't help him get things done any faster. Still, if that's how the Lieutenant kept his cool, then who was Shepard to begrudge him. The Commander debated on whether to check the panel on the other side and guess at how much time they had left. Deciding he would rather not know if he was about to die, Shepard continued to watch Kaidan work. I wasn't the possibility of death that bothered him. After all: everyone dies. Instead, it was powerlessness that he felt over the circumstances that he found annoying.

Shepard's musings on death were brought to a halt as Kaidan unceremoniously leaned back from the bomb, "Ok, I got them. Strange actually. There was no anti-tampering mechanism built into the device. I kept looking for one because the whole setup seemed too straightforward. Whoever made this thing didn't have any fail-safes in case someone tried to disarm it."

Shepard did find that somewhat strange. "Maybe they didn't expect anyone to be around to stop it." As he looked around the spaceport another idea occurred to him, "…or alive to."

The two were interrupted as the panel Shepard and Ashley were still holding beeped once before going dark. All three let out a breath when nothing happened and Shepard and Ashley dropped the cover panel to the ground. Looking over to the beacon, the Commander had an amusing thought, "And here I was hoping that dying would allow me to avoid the debriefings and paperwork we're going to have." Kaidan gave a brief chuckle while Ashley was decidedly not amused. "Time to wrap things up. I'll put in a call to the Normandy. Make sure the beacon is secure for transport."

As Kaidan and Ashley moved towards the Beacon, Shepard fired up his comm, "Normandy. Do you read me? Normandy. This is Commander Shepard."

It wasn't Joker's voice that responded, but Anderson's, "We read you Commander. What's your status?"

"The Beacon is secure. Both Jenkins and Nihlus are down. I'm activating my transponder for pickup now."

"Copy that. We're on our way."

As his comm cut out, Shepard activated the transponder on his suit to broadcast their position to the Normandy. Turning back towards the Beacon, the Commander approached his squad. As he got closer, he could hear Ashley talking to Kaidan.

"It wasn't active like this when I last saw it."

Looking more closely at the Beacon, Shepard noticed that is was putting off some kind of greenish glow. He was still walking towards the two marines when Ashley was suddenly jerked towards the metal monolith. Kaidan yelled for Shepard as he sprinted after the Gunnery Chief. She seemed to be struggling against some kind of invisible force that continued to pull her closer to the Beacon. Shepard finally caught up to Ashley as he slammed into the back of her. Twisting the two of them around, he managed to get himself between the Beacon and Ashley. "Kaidan." As the Lieutenant moved closer, Shepard relocated his now glowing arms to the back of Ashley's suit and shoved. The biotically enhanced push sent her flying back into the waiting arms of his Lieutenant. However, the force that had been pulling her towards the Beacon had now latched onto Shepard. The Commander's struggles were in vain as he found himself at the mercy of the beacon's invisible grip. His body was pulled into the air as he continued to move forward. Shepard's arms were wrenched forward until they made contact with the metal of the beacon's surface.

The second Shepard's hands made contact with the Beacon, visions began to flood through his brain. Like some kind of slide show, the images paraded through the Commander's mind. As they began to pick up in pace, he lost the ability to make out what was in them. Still more images began to flood through his head as he felt like his skull would burst open.

Shepard was completely unaware of his surroundings as the beacon began to spark and smoke. Suddenly, the metal pillar exploded in a shower of metal bits that had Kaidan and Ashley ducking for cover. The Commander's body was thrown backwards toward them by the force of the explosion. The two of them ran forward to try and help. Their shouts seemed to work for a moment as the Commander's eyes darted rapidly in their sockets. Then, his eyes rolled back into his head as Shepard lost consciousness.

* * *

A/N: Uh... Hello. Long time no see and all that. So about a week after I posted my last chapter the cooling fan for the GPU on my computer died. Because of that, my GPU ended up overheating in a big way which turned my laptop into a very large, very heavy, and very expensive paperweight. It did end up being covered under warranty, but I had to send it in to get fixed. The companies turn around time was... less than optimal. That being said, I now have it back and working again and I am ready to hit the ground running. Hopefully, this will be the longest delay between chapters you ever see, but I can't really make any promises in that regard. Anyway, enough about me and on to what you really care about: the story.

So a few changes for this chapter: two minor and one major. First, the response to Sovereign leaving the spaceport. So in the lore of the ME universe it says thats ships over the size of frigates can't enter planets atmospheres. Why not? Are they too big? No, it can't be size because reaper ships are larger than any dreadnaughts: so it must be mass. Think about that for a second: mass. Well it's too bad that ships in the ME universe aren't built around a technology that allows them to lower their mass or anything like that... right. All sarcasm aside, there really is no reason that any ship of any size couldn't enter a planets atmosphere. Strategically speaking, it might be a bad idea since it leaves the ship a sitting duck, but there are no physical limitations preventing it.

Number two, the bomb. I know in the games you went around trying to disable multiple bombs, but why would you need more that one? The game tells us that the bombs were meant to wipe out that entire area of the colony, most likely to erase any evidence. They would have to be very large bombs to accomplish this. Larger than any conventional explosive. This pretty much means they would have to be nuclear. If that's the case, you most certainly don't need more than one. Also, I took the implosion trigger used in nuclear weapons currently and updated it for one that uses mass effect technology. Actually, given the way the mass effect trigger would work, I'm not even sure you would need the secondary hydrogen fusion stage to boost the yield, but I decided to keep it since it can't hurt anything any would only boost efficiency. Actually, this got me thinking about it and I realized that given the way a mass effect trigger system works: anyone with access to eezo and any fissile material could create a device capable to nuclear fission. Food for thought.

Now on to the big change. Let's talk about omni-tools. Omni-tools are essentially the Swiss Army Knives of the ME universe. In Mass Effect 3, this allusion even becomes somewhat literal with the introduction of the omni-blade. But there is a very large flaw with the idea behind them. Notably, **omni-tools don't exist.** In the entirety of the ME games, we never see a single one. What the player sees, is a holographic display which promptly disappears after use. Other than that, there is no indication whatsoever that omni-tools are even real things. This becomes especially evident in scenes where people in normal clothing are using omni-tools and other than the hologram there is nothing there. Its like the mass effect equivalent of 'mallet space.' So, I ask you this question: what the hell is doing all of the functionality that an omni-tool possesses. In any scientific definition of work, there has to be something that does the work. So here is how I am going to change omni-tools. Number one, the omni-tool in its basic form is essentially a small portable computation device with limited functionality. It is basically a computer/scanner/holographic projector all rolled into one (and I guess also a flashlight as well given that last property). In essence, its a tricorder. This device is small enough that it is worn on a person's arm a la a large wristwatch. The reason it is called an omni-tool is because it is designed for modular functionality by adding additional parts. I want it to be similar to the Picatinny Rail system that is currently used by firearms manufactures. Essentially, you hook your omni-tool into a hard-suit type gauntlet which supplies the power and has the rails mounted on it. From there, can add attachments. Common attachments include the following: twenty-five millimeter launcher for overload/incineration/etc. charges, a plasma cutting/welding tool, a basic trauma and surgery kit, an omni-blade, so on and so forth. Of course you can't possibly use all of these at once, but you can carry and switch out others on the fly. The one thing you will not be seeing in this version of the ME universe are 'micro-manufacturing plants.' I'm not going to even get into all of the reasons that this concept wouldn't work, but after spending some time in construction and manufacturing, you can trust me when I can there are a metric ton of them.

Well that's it for this chapter. The next one will be the first real derivation for the storyline of the game, and the last to take place on Eden Prime. Hopefully, I shall have it for you guys in short order.


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